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PHYSICS AND FAITH. 



ADDRESS BY 



Henry (Jarrington Bolton, Ph.D., 

Ketirino President of the Chemical Society of Washington, 



February 14, 1901. 



{Reprinted from Science, JV. S., Vol. XIII. , No. 320, Pages 241-246, 
February 15, 1901.] 



Gift 
Mrs . H.O. Bolton 



■£*5 



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[Reprinted from SCIENCE, N. S., Vol XIII. , No. 320, 
Pages 241-^46, February 15, 1901.] 



PHYSICS AND FAITH* 

Our knowledge concerning the properties 
of and changes in matter is gained in the 
first place through our bodily senses, and 
secondly through the intellect ; the pri- 
mary concepts thus acquired are confirmed, 
modified aod enlarged by operations of the 
imagination and of the reason. The five 
senses with which we are endowed are of 
very unequal value in the acquisition of 
knowledge of natural objects ; smelling, 
tasting and hearing make but small and 
unimportant contributions compared with 
those communicated by the senses of sight 
and of feeling. 

An intelligent being, having only the single 
sense of feeling, would nevertheless be able 
to handle a large number of objects within 
his reach and to study their properties ; he 
would early distinguish between matter at 
rest and matter in motion ; he would notice 
the properties of inertia and of weight ; he 
would perceive in his person the effects of 
heat and of cold, of dryness and of moisture ; 
he would become acquainted with the shape 
of bodies of moderate size and with their 
superficial properties, such as smoothness 
or roughness, softness or hardness ; he 
might, if he made sagacious use of his one 
power, recognize the distinction between 
matter in its three states — solid, liquid and 
gaseous, though it would be difficult for 
him to comprehend their relations to one 

* Address of the retiring President of the Chemical 
Society of Washington, February 14, 1901. 



another. Air in motion makes itself felt 
but of gaseous matter in general his know- 
ledge would be very limited and vague. 
The simplest of tests would make him ac- 
quainted with elasticity, malleability and 
ductility, as well as with density and te- 
nacity ; fusibility and solubility would un- 
doubtedly greatly puzzle him, and he would 
of course remain ignorant of light, of sound 
and of the physical universe beyond his 
limited sphere. 

If to this being of one sense the so-called 
1 chemical senses ' of taste and of smell were 
added, he would acquire greater insight into 
the special qualities of bodies that affect 
these organs ; he would observe the agree- 
able odors of the natural products of the 
soil and forest as well as the offensive ones 
in the three kingdoms of nature ; he would 
learn to differentiate many gases previously 
regarded as identical; he would learn to 
distinguish between alkaline and acid, 
sweet and bitter substances, and to recognize 
those having particular flavors. On the 
other hand, the intelligent being of three 
senses would fail to comprehend the physio- 
logical processes by which the sensations are 
perceived, and in this respect he would be 
little less ignorant than are beings of five 
senses. 

On endowing this imaginary person with 
the sense of hearing his knowledge of the 
external world would be greatly enlarged 
and his personal comfort increased, he would 
also acquire a more exact knowledge of 
some of the properties of matter ; he would 
become conscious of vibrations in the air 
conveying sounds, and by listening to the 
roar of a Niagara or to the chirp of a cricket, 
to the melodies of song birds or to the fierce 



growl of a beast of prey, he would attain 
to more lofty ideas of the marvels of nature 
than in his deaf state. He could now learn 
of the crackling of brimstone, the ' cry ' of 
tin, the snapping of electric sparks, and the 
startling detonations caused by combustion 
of ' villainous saltpetre ' and of certain gas- 
eous mixtures. 

If finally, the precious gift of sight should 
be bestowed upon the subject of four senses 
a new world would be opened to him, and 
his intellectual and emotional capacities 
would be enhanced immeasurably ; for the 
first time he would be able to realize the 
full meaning of the word beautiful as ap- 
plied to nature. With the fifth sense he 
would perceive the beauty of form, of color, 
of luster, of ornamentation in the flower, 
the bird, the insect, the floating clouds and 
in the rainbow ; he would have opened to 
him the magnificent spectacle of a starry 
firmament, of an aurora and of the sun In 
its noon- day glory. He would now be fairly 
equipped for investigating physical science. 

At a remote period seven senses were at- 
tributed to man ; these are given by the 
Hebrew author of the ancient book Eccle- 
siasticus as seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling, 
smelling, understanding and speech. They 
are referred to by the poet Pope in the 
couplet : 

11 Good sense which only is the gift of Heaven, 
And though no science, fairly worth the seven," 

and the idea survives in the singular phrase 
in common use : ' Frightened out of one's 
seven senses.' 

The nature of a sixth sense has been a 
matter of speculation, but it is hardly less 
difficult for individuals with five senses to 
form a conception of an extra sense, than 



it is for a sightless person to acquire any 
adequate idea of the true significance of 
seeing. The sixth sense has been called 
the muscular sense as distinguished from 
touch, but we prefer to think of it as a 
sense for cognizing forms of energy whose 
seat of action lies in the ether supposed to 
pervade space. 

While it is absolutely impossible for a 
finite mind to plan the structure of an or- 
gan that would give us this power or to 
conjecture its mode of action, in discussing 
it, we find it convenient to use terms anal- 
ogous to those that we employ for the eye. 
We need, then, a keen sense that will en- 
able us to ' see ' what takes place in the in- 
terior of masses in their several states of ag- 
gregation ; to ' see ' the arrangement of the 
atoms within the molecule, and to study 
their behavior under the influence of well- 
known as well as obscure forms of energy. 
Even as Rontgen rays force a passage 
through the intermolecular voids of certain 
kinds of masses, a sixth sense might en- 
able us to ' see ' the action of heat in sep- 
arating the molecules and the influence or 
chemism in uniting or in parting the atoms 
within them ; to perceive the mechanism of 
solution, to 'see ' the infinitesimal particles 
of sodium chlorid penetrate the aqueous 
liquid to form a homogeneous solution. To 
' see ' the exact manner in which an elec- 
trical l current ' (so-called) exerts its sep- 
arating power when brought to bear upon a 
liquid ; to test whether the theory of ioniza- 
tion has any substantial foundation. A 
sixth sense might permit us to ' see ' the 
energy manifested by the Hertzian waves 
which under the skilful management of 
Marconi are just beginning to serve the in- 



terests of man ; to learn the secrets of that 
medium permeating interstellar and inter, 
molecular space which becomes the adjunct 
of sight ; the art of photography has made 
visible views of the interior of masses im- 
permeable to rays of light and has yielded 
permanent records of the sound waves of 
the air, but we seem to need a sixth sense 
to cognize the operations of the luminif- 
erous ether. 

In the fantastic conception in which we 
have indulged the imaginary being is sup- 
posed to be intelligent, for mere sense-per- 
ception without the cooperation of the intel- 
lect could not augment one's knowledge of 
the physical universe to any great extent. 
Through our bodily senses we learn the 
existence of natural phenomena, but it is 
through operations of the intellect that we 
acquire the deeper knowledge which be- 
comes the subject of imagination, of reason 
and, eventually, of faith. 

After observing that some kinds of matter 
suffer changes in form, in properties, in po- 
tential energy when subjected to the influ- 
ence of heat, of light, as well as to the action 
of other kinds of matter, and that certain 
causes produce uniformly identical results, 
thinking men made endeavors to explain 
the phenomena by inventing hypotheses as 
to the essence of the material objects and of 
the various kinds of energy acting upon 
them. In the infancy of learning, Greek 
philosophers of wonderful intuition con- 
ceived a theory of the constitution of matter 
that has made a lasting impress on physical 
science; the theory possessed marvelous 
adaptability, and when a Manchester school- 
master grafted upon the aged trunk the 
tender shoot of his genius, it soon grew to 



6 



be a vigorous branch that bore fruit of un- 
suspected value. Nearly a century has 
elapsed and the atomic theory has secured 
a strong hold upon the minds of physicists 
and of chemists; maintained by men of 
sound judgment and great authority, im- 
parted by teachers of recognized ability to 
successive generations of pupils, it has be- 
come a matter of belief, adopted with a few 
exceptions by scientists throughout the en- 
lightened world, and in their hands it has 
become a potent factor in the progress of 
physical science. Yet this theory is purely 
a figment of the imagination and makes ex- 
traordinary assumptions difficult of cre- 
dence ; it supposes that matter is made up 
of very minute particles, indivisible, in- 
destructible, and unchangeable, separated 
from one another by void spaces larger than 
the particles themselves ; these diminutive 
atoms are of definite, uniform and constant 
figure, and are in perpetual motion in all 
conceivable directions at exceedingly high 
rates of speed ; moreover, the atoms com- 
posing the different chemical elements are 
of determinate weights corresponding to 
their equivalents of combination ; these mi- 
nute particles attract each other with vary- 
ing degrees of strength and unite in simple 
ratios to form larger particles called mole- 
cules ; agglomerations of these molecules 
constitute masses, visible to the eye and 
subject to the laws of mechanics. 

Faith in this purely intellectual concep- 
tion has enabled men of genius to refer to 
it the explanation of many facts, and the 
hypotheses resulting have developed into 
laws of prime importance in chemical phi- 
losophy ; Dalton discovered facts in the 
union of chemical bodies whose interpreta- 



tion he found in the doctrine of atoms ; 
Humboldt and Gay-Lussac reinforced the 
Daltonian laws by their labors on the ra- 
tios in which the volumes of gases combine; 
Avogadro, by purely physical researches 
established the relation between the volumes 
of gases and the number of their constituent 
molecules; and Gerhardt, working in the 
field of organic chemistry, observed the 
bearing of these discoveries on chemical phi- 
losophy and, by clearly establishing the dis- 
tinction between atom and molecule, gave 
to the atomic theory its modern aspects. 

Faith in this theory has made it possible 
to devise a scheme of notation that in spite 
of its defects has proved of great utility in 
promoting the advancement of chemistry ; 
the multitudinous problems of stoichio- 
metry ,the modern theories of solution and 
of electrolysis, the doctrines of isomerism 
and of stereo-chemistry are achievements of 
the intellect and of the reason based upon a 
belief in an imaginary condition of matter. 
To crown the whole, Newlands, the English- 
man, originated, Meyer, the German, and 
Mendel6eff, the Russian, brought to a high 
state of perfection, the Periodic law which 
has given to chemistry that prophetic power, 
long regarded as the peculiar dignity of its 
sister science, astronomy. 

Quite apart from these abstract prin- 
ciples, based upon a belief in the atomic con- 
stitution of matter, is the practical side of 
the question, of which the analytical chem- 
ist avails himself in determining the value 
of substances submitted to him ; on the re- 
sults of his figures thousands of dollars may 
change hands in the manufacturing, mining 
and commercial world. A ship-load of ma- 
terial is bought and sold on the result of the 



8 



analysis of a sample conducted by a chem- 
ist, who bases his procedure on the supposed 
numerical relations of the invisible, in- 
tangible, immeasurable particles he calls 
atoms, and in his calculations he relies on 
the constants determined by others, in 
whom he has confidence, and the accuracy 
of which constants he has to accept on 
faith. Reliance on the dicta and data of 
investigators whose very names may be un- 
known lies at the very foundation of phys- 
ical science, and without this faith in au- 
thority the structure would fall to the 
ground ; not the blind faith in authority of 
the unreasoning kind that prevailed in the 
middle ages, but a rational belief in the con- 
current testimony of individuals who have 
recorded the results of their experiments 
and observations, and whose statements 
can be verified. 

This faith in the fundamental principles 
of physical science persists notwithstand- 
ing it encounters insurmountable difficul- 
ties. Many problems defy the efforts of 
materialistic philosophers to solve them ; 
the origin of matter and of motion ; the 
initial source of energy as well as the re- 
lation of gravitation to other forces ; the 
positive nature of the interstellar ether 
imagined as a vehicle for the transmission 
of light, not to mention proofs of its exist- 
ence ; the true inwardness of actinism, of 
Rontgenism, and of the rays named after 
Becquerel ; the ultimate identity in es- 
sence of the so-called elementary bodies. 
Some of these problems will undoubtedly 
be solved as knowledge of the material 
world increases, but others are destined to 
remain inscrutable to finite minds and 
as such may be called scientific 'mysteries.' 



9 



We can construct ingenious arguments 
based largely on assumptions, and reason 
ourselves into the notion that our hypoth- 
eses explain the questions at issue, but 
after all we know very little beyond the 
effects observed. 

These problems arise in every depart- 
ment of organized knowledge ; the student 
of chemistry does not have to look far 
afield to encounter mysteries, though he 
does not commonly so style them ; phe- 
nomena of ordinary experience challenge 
the interpretation of philosophers. What 
do we actually know of the chemical force 
called affinity? Who can tell why the at- 
traction between A and B is so much 
stronger than between A and C, or why 
one element forces another out of its com- 
bination with a third ? What chemist who 
has watched under the microscope the 
beautiful, symmetrical manner in which 
minute particles of a substance separating 
in solid form from solution, arrange them- 
selves in geometrical figures obeying well 
established mathematical laws, can pretend 
to explain the cause of the astounding be- 
havior of the inert, lifeless matter? 

But I desist from propounding further 
queries, the answers to which are buried in 
impenetrable mystery. A student of ele- 
mentary chemistry, impressed with the 
ability of the teacher to explain natural 
phenomena, asked him : ' Professor, why 
is gold yellow ' ? Whereupon the profess- 
or, waiving the customary explanation [?] , 
reverently answered : ' Because God made 
it so ! ' 

Is it unfair to scientists to say that they 
sometimes take refuge in obscure language 
to veil their ignorance ? It may help our 



10 

imagination to affirm that carbon and other 
elements occur in l allotropic ' forms, but 
does this statement adequately explain the 
phenomenon ? To term the peculiar action 
of certain bodies, which themselves suffer 
no change while they effect decompositions 
or combinations in others with which they 
are brought in contact, as ' catalytic ' may 
be soothing to the mind, but is it scientific? 
Is it satisfactory ? One hundred and fifty 
years ago the properties of water were said 
to be caused by its ' aquosity ' ! 

In this study we have confined our il- 
lustrations to the physical and chemical 
branches of science, but they might well be 
drawn from astronomy and from the bio- 
logical sciences ; in the former, one becomes 
acquainted with 

" Realms yet unrevealed to human sight," 

as well as with the conception of infinity in 
space and in time ; in the latter, one en- 
counters the unfathomable mystery of the 
origin of life. It is evident that in pursu- 
ing any branch of knowledge the seeker has 
opportunities of familiarizing himself with 
ideas contained in the phrases, ' invisible 
world,' ' infinity,' ' mystery,' and with facts 
that require application of all the powers 
of the imagination and of reason, to grasp 
which he exercises faith. 

Most scientists having this mental train- 
ing, in which acts of faith are demanded at 
every step, find it natural to apply this 
faith to their hypostasis of the spiritual 
world ; they thus acquire belief in an in- 
scrutable Divine Being, who exercises al- 
mighty wisdom and power in the guidance 
of the material universe, and who has made 
Himself known to humanity by revelation. 



11 



To such persons it does not seem more 
difficult to believe in spiritual force and its 
influence on mankind, than to believe in 
the existence of energy and its effects on 
matter. Huxley, who certainly can not be 
accused of religious bias, is said to have 
remarked : " The doctrine of the immor- 
tality of the soul is not so wonderful as 
that of the conservation of energy or of the 
indestructibility of matter." 

The evidence of the existence of spirit 
is precisely analogous to the evidence for 
matter; matter, as we have seen, is re- 
vealed to us onty as its phenomena, exten- 
sion, weight, color, behavior when sub- 
jected to heat, etc., affect our senses ; of its 
essence we know nothing ; spirit, likewise, 
is revealed to our consciousness through its 
powers of thinking, feeling and willing, but 
of the essential spirit the finite mind knows 
nothing. " Matter,'' writes an American 
scientist, " is the thing perceived, spirit the 
thing perceiving, matter is the passive, 
spirit the active principle. Without a be- 
lief in spirit, therefore, not only can there 
be no religion, no virtue, but there can be 
no philosophy or science. * * * The very 
origin of our notion of force is the con- 
sciousness of our own mental energy, and 
this universal energy of Nature is an 
effluence of the Divine Being." 

Faith, both in science and in religion, is 
belief based on suitable evidence from 
sources outside of personal experience, both 
are fruitful in different ways, the former 
affecting the intellect and the latter the 
heart of man ; scientific faith bears fruit in 
the steamship and in the telegraph, Chris- 
tian faith in works of mercy and charity 



12 



and in a life of love shown toward man- 
kind and to God ; it is 

1 1 The subtle chain 
That binds us to the Infinite." 

On the other hand, some students of 
science, accustomed to exercise faith in 
their attempts to solve obscure problems 
in the material world, hesitate (and a few 
refuse) to extend this intellectual power to 
the spiritual universe ; this is undoubtedly 
due to the operation of the will, for 

" A man along that road is led 
Which he himself desires to tread." 

The supreme goal of the student of 
science was admirably conceived and ex- 
pressed in a single sentence by the re- 
nowned Kepler, when he wrote nearly 
three centuries ago : 

"The scientist's highest privilege is to 
know the mind and to think the thoughts 
of GOD !» 

H. Carrington Bolton. 

Washington, D. C. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
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